EPIC $350 Productivity PC Build 2016

# A Comprehensive Guide to Building a $350 Productivity PC for 2016

Welcome back to *In The Geek Walk*! Today, we’re doing something a bit different but highly requested—instead of gaming builds, we’re focusing on productivity. This is a budget-friendly productivity PC build costing $350 in US and UK currencies, ranging from $200 up to $2000 or pounds. If you're interested in seeing more productivity or gaming builds, be sure to check the link in the description or the card section below. Without further ado, let’s dive into this productivity PC build!

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## **1. The CPU: Intel Core i3 6100**

For this productivity build, we’ve opted for an Intel Core i3 6100. This is a brand-new Intel Core i3 CPU that truly shines for productivity tasks. When I say productivity, I mean general everyday use—whether it’s school work, office tasks, browsing the internet, checking emails, or even basic photo processing.

This CPU comes in at $130 and don’t be fooled by its core count—it may seem like there are cheaper CPUs with more cores (even up to six or eight) for around the same price. However, this i3 is a very strong dual-core CPU, and it’s more than enough for your productivity needs. It boasts excellent single-threaded performance, which is crucial for tasks like Microsoft Office, web browsing, and other productivity-heavy activities.

Intel CPUs are renowned for their reliability, especially in office or school PCs. This build will excel at handling any productivity-related workload you throw at it.

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## **2. The Motherboard: Micro ATX LGA 1151**

For the motherboard, we’ve gone with a micro ATX LGA 1151 board. This motherboard uses the brand-new LGA 1151 socket, which is compatible with newer Skylake CPUs and supports DDR4 memory. It runs on the H110 chipset, which means it’s not overclockable—but that’s fine for a productivity build, as you won’t need to overclock this system.

The motherboard is sleek in design, nothing too flashy or overwhelming. Its primary role is to hold and connect all the other components together. For $50, this is an excellent choice for a mid-range build.

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## **3. The Memory: 8GB Crucial Ballistix RAM**

For memory, we’ve selected one stick of 8GB Crucial Ballistix RAM. Eight gigabytes might seem like a modest amount, but it’s more than enough for productivity tasks. Whether you’re running multiple tabs in Google Chrome or Firefox, juggling documents, or working on big essays and assignments, this should handle everything smoothly.

The motherboard also allows for another 8GB stick to be added later, bringing the total RAM to 16GB if needed. This flexibility makes it a great choice for future upgrades.

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## **4. The Storage: Western Digital Black Hard Drive**

For storage, we’ve gone with a Western Digital Black hard drive offering 1TB of space. While not as fast as an SSD, this drive provides ample capacity to store tons of documents, images, and more. It’s faster than standard 7200 rpm drives but won’t match the speed of an SSD.

It’s worth noting that while this hard drive comes with a solid warranty (around three or five years), it’s crucial to back up your data elsewhere. Hard drives can fail, and losing your work would be devastating. For $65, this is a very large choice for storage in this build.

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## **5. The Case: X Mid Tower Case**

For the case, we’ve chosen something that isn’t too flashy but offers a sleek design. This is the X mid tower case—don’t let its long and somewhat confusing name fool you. It’s a micro ATX mid-tower case that provides plenty of airflow to keep your components cool, ensuring longevity and lifespan for all parts.

The case also has a little bit of bling with an LED intake fan, which adds a touch of style while reassuring you that the fans are working properly. For $25, this is a fantastic value for a case of this caliber.

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## **6. The Power Supply: EVGA 431 850W ATX**

Finally, we’ve opted for a separate power supply to ensure reliability and performance. This build could have cheaped out on the case and PSU combo unit, but that’s not the most reliable option. Instead, we’ve gone with the best-optimized parts for this build.

The EVGA 431 850W ATX is a full-size power supply certified by HP and tested to run at over 80% efficiency across 20%, 50%, and 100% load scenarios. While you might struggle to hit 100% load on this system, it’s more than capable of handling the current configuration smoothly. It comes in at $25—a steal for its performance and reliability.

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## **Conclusion**

This productivity build is designed to handle all your work-related tasks, school projects, and general computing needs with ease. While it can certainly handle gaming (even in titles like Minecraft, Warcraft, League of Legends, or CS:GO), its primary focus is on productivity. If you’re looking for a more gaming-oriented PC within a similar budget, be sure to check the link in the description or the card section below.

If you found this video helpful and want to see more content, don’t forget to drop a like, rate the video, and subscribe for more updates! Thanks for watching, and we’ll catch up with you in the next video—what’s on your mind? Let me know in the comments!

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*End of transcription.*

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome back to in the geek walk video today I'm doing something very different but also very very requested rather than a gaming build it's a Productivity build is a $350 productivity build for 2016 if you like see all my productivity in gaming built in US and UK currencies right from 200 all the way up to 2000 dollars and pounds build then check the link in the description below or in the card section now without further ado let's get into this productivity PC build the CPU I've gone for is an Intel Core i3 6100 it's a brand new Intel Core i3 CPU and Intel Core i3 really is where it's where it's at for productivity so so what I mean by productivity is your general everyday use so if it's that whether that be school work or work for work or so you you Microsoft Office checking emails browsing the internet all that kind of stuff and even some more advanced store such as basic photo processing and that kind of thing it comes in at $130 and don't be fooled by the core core count sorry as there are there are many many cheaper CPUs with over with over 2 cores with even up to six or eight cores for $130 but these are a very very strong job this is very very strong dual-core CPU and more than enough it's got very very good very fast single-threaded performance which is definitely helpful for something like Microsoft Office or check in the Internet it's a very very solid CPU from Intel and Intel definitely are renowned and in Intel CPUs are what you'll find in office pcs or school pcs and this build really will excel something like an office or a school PC for the motherboard are meant to be think about gah one one one om M - a micro ATX LGA 1151 motherboard it uses the brand-new LGA 1151 socket that you'd find on with the newer skylake CPUs which is pop which support the new ddr4 memory it runs on the H 110 chipset which means you aren't using only overclocking however the CPU isn't overclockable that so there really is no point productivity builds you're not going to need to overclock because this build is going to be capable for all of it all of those productivity type of applications it's real the mother words very sleek design nothing too in-your-face in the motherboard is responsible for holding and connecting all the other parts together and for $50.00 is a very very nice another board in memory I've gone for one eight gigabyte DIMMs of Crucial Ballistix sport eight gigabytes is really is where at if you have it at the tab hor see you like loads of Google Chrome or Firefox or Internet Explorer tabs open if you've got loads of documents open you right or big essays and big assignments for example eight gig about eight gigabytes of RAM is going to be more than enough and it you are in a position as well with this motherboard to get another eight gigabyte stick later on down the line so the identical Ram from the identical place if you will put that in and you've got sixteen gigabytes of RAM so you just shove that in the other socket for storage I went for some very very fast Western Digital black storage so it's faster than your standard 7200 rpm hard drive but not quite as fast as an SSD it just however give you the capacity that's so one terabyte of storage to store a ton of documents loads and loads of images and so if you run out a room on your iPhone or whatever then this send then this then this hard drive has got more than enough space to store everything do note that if a hard if this hard drive dies which is I believe it's got over a three or a five year warranty on it if this hard drive just are you are gonna lose your data so it is important as with any PC whether that be productivity or gaming to back your data elsewhere to make sure it's safe but for $65 is hard drive is a very large choice the case I think ever something too blingy but also something that's got a very very sleek design it's the X 0 and X om - 310 underscore became micro ATX mid tower case don't before barley rather long and rather annoying name that 11 that they've named in this case but for $25 is casing nice and sleek it's got plenty of airflow options which means your components inside gonna be nice and cool to increase the longevity and the lifespan of the component it's got a little bit of bling with it with an outer front intake a leaf or an LED intake of fun however that just reassuring to know that you fans working in those on and it just adds a little bit more just makes it look fat a little bit more sort of expensive as you will in for $25 it really is a great value my creative exponent allocates but now float for this sort of caliber of bill with these other components I could have cheaped out on the case in the pals plugin for a combo unit but that isn't the most reliable and I've tried to gone for sort of the best optimized parts for this bill which is why I've gone for a separate power supply just to ensure that that all either all the components in this bill going smoothly and there's much less points of failure virtually you can get on this cons computer whenever you wish and then do do work at meet deadlines etc etc it's the EVGA 431 84 certified ATX power supply it's a full-size ATX power supply which is supported 100% by the case and is very very solid it's an HP certified power supply which means it's guaranteed to run over 80% efficiency and that's been tested at 20 50 and 100 percent load scenarios although you're going to be struggling to hit hundred percent load at all on this power supply in the current SPARC configuration comes in at $25 in an extremely good value and definitely strikes a value between balance so to Prague's balance and performance so a very very solid a very very solid power supply and that wraps it up for this productivity build not to say that this can't gain because it can certainly do in Minecraft it can certainly do well Warcraft League of Legends csgo etc etc however this build is more aimed towards productivity and if you'd like to see a better gaming PC build for three hundred and three hundred fifty dollars as I said check the link in the description below all the cards section in the top right hand corner if you have found this video helpful want to see more drop a like rate and make sure to subscribe and win as always see you in the next keep the what video youwelcome back to in the geek walk video today I'm doing something very different but also very very requested rather than a gaming build it's a Productivity build is a $350 productivity build for 2016 if you like see all my productivity in gaming built in US and UK currencies right from 200 all the way up to 2000 dollars and pounds build then check the link in the description below or in the card section now without further ado let's get into this productivity PC build the CPU I've gone for is an Intel Core i3 6100 it's a brand new Intel Core i3 CPU and Intel Core i3 really is where it's where it's at for productivity so so what I mean by productivity is your general everyday use so if it's that whether that be school work or work for work or so you you Microsoft Office checking emails browsing the internet all that kind of stuff and even some more advanced store such as basic photo processing and that kind of thing it comes in at $130 and don't be fooled by the core core count sorry as there are there are many many cheaper CPUs with over with over 2 cores with even up to six or eight cores for $130 but these are a very very strong job this is very very strong dual-core CPU and more than enough it's got very very good very fast single-threaded performance which is definitely helpful for something like Microsoft Office or check in the Internet it's a very very solid CPU from Intel and Intel definitely are renowned and in Intel CPUs are what you'll find in office pcs or school pcs and this build really will excel something like an office or a school PC for the motherboard are meant to be think about gah one one one om M - a micro ATX LGA 1151 motherboard it uses the brand-new LGA 1151 socket that you'd find on with the newer skylake CPUs which is pop which support the new ddr4 memory it runs on the H 110 chipset which means you aren't using only overclocking however the CPU isn't overclockable that so there really is no point productivity builds you're not going to need to overclock because this build is going to be capable for all of it all of those productivity type of applications it's real the mother words very sleek design nothing too in-your-face in the motherboard is responsible for holding and connecting all the other parts together and for $50.00 is a very very nice another board in memory I've gone for one eight gigabyte DIMMs of Crucial Ballistix sport eight gigabytes is really is where at if you have it at the tab hor see you like loads of Google Chrome or Firefox or Internet Explorer tabs open if you've got loads of documents open you right or big essays and big assignments for example eight gig about eight gigabytes of RAM is going to be more than enough and it you are in a position as well with this motherboard to get another eight gigabyte stick later on down the line so the identical Ram from the identical place if you will put that in and you've got sixteen gigabytes of RAM so you just shove that in the other socket for storage I went for some very very fast Western Digital black storage so it's faster than your standard 7200 rpm hard drive but not quite as fast as an SSD it just however give you the capacity that's so one terabyte of storage to store a ton of documents loads and loads of images and so if you run out a room on your iPhone or whatever then this send then this then this hard drive has got more than enough space to store everything do note that if a hard if this hard drive dies which is I believe it's got over a three or a five year warranty on it if this hard drive just are you are gonna lose your data so it is important as with any PC whether that be productivity or gaming to back your data elsewhere to make sure it's safe but for $65 is hard drive is a very large choice the case I think ever something too blingy but also something that's got a very very sleek design it's the X 0 and X om - 310 underscore became micro ATX mid tower case don't before barley rather long and rather annoying name that 11 that they've named in this case but for $25 is casing nice and sleek it's got plenty of airflow options which means your components inside gonna be nice and cool to increase the longevity and the lifespan of the component it's got a little bit of bling with it with an outer front intake a leaf or an LED intake of fun however that just reassuring to know that you fans working in those on and it just adds a little bit more just makes it look fat a little bit more sort of expensive as you will in for $25 it really is a great value my creative exponent allocates but now float for this sort of caliber of bill with these other components I could have cheaped out on the case in the pals plugin for a combo unit but that isn't the most reliable and I've tried to gone for sort of the best optimized parts for this bill which is why I've gone for a separate power supply just to ensure that that all either all the components in this bill going smoothly and there's much less points of failure virtually you can get on this cons computer whenever you wish and then do do work at meet deadlines etc etc it's the EVGA 431 84 certified ATX power supply it's a full-size ATX power supply which is supported 100% by the case and is very very solid it's an HP certified power supply which means it's guaranteed to run over 80% efficiency and that's been tested at 20 50 and 100 percent load scenarios although you're going to be struggling to hit hundred percent load at all on this power supply in the current SPARC configuration comes in at $25 in an extremely good value and definitely strikes a value between balance so to Prague's balance and performance so a very very solid a very very solid power supply and that wraps it up for this productivity build not to say that this can't gain because it can certainly do in Minecraft it can certainly do well Warcraft League of Legends csgo etc etc however this build is more aimed towards productivity and if you'd like to see a better gaming PC build for three hundred and three hundred fifty dollars as I said check the link in the description below all the cards section in the top right hand corner if you have found this video helpful want to see more drop a like rate and make sure to subscribe and win as always see you in the next keep the what video you\n"